Yoruba people

==History==
{{Main|History of the Yoruba people}}
{{See|Ifẹ}}
{{See also|Yoruba religion}}

By the [[8th century]], [[Ife Empire|a powerful kingdom]] already existed in [[Ile-Ife]], one of the earliest in Africa.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ile-Ife {{!}} Nigeria|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ile-Ife|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}</ref> It was viewed by the Yoruba as capital of the realm of humanity, based on the oldest pre-dynastic traditions of it being associated with [[Ọbatala|Oba Tala]], [[Shango|Sango]], [[Yemoja]], [[Oduduwa]], [[Orunmila]] and a host of primordial beings believed to have descended from the heavens (''Ode Orun'') in Yoruba godlore.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=24520425 | title=The Issue of "Oduduwa" in Yoruba Genesis: The Myths and Realities | last1=Ojuade | first1=J. 'Sina | journal=Transafrican Journal of History | year=1992 | volume=21 | pages=139–158 }}</ref>

[[File:HistoYoruba.jpeg|left|thumb|Some Yoruba cities of the [[Middle Ages]]|190x190px]]
The historical Yoruba develop ''in ṣitu'', out of earlier Mesolithic [[Volta-Niger]] populations, by the [[1st millennium BC|1st millennium BCE]].<ref name="Adeyemi 36–45">{{Cite journal|last=Adeyemi|first=A.|date=2016-04-18|title=Migration and the Yorùbá Myth of Origin|journal=European Journal of Arts|pages=36–45|doi=10.20534/eja-16-1-36-45|issn=2310-5666}}</ref> [[Oral history]] recorded under the [[Oyo Empire]] derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the population of the older kingdom of Ile-Ife. The Yoruba were the dominant cultural force in southern and northwestern Nigeria as far back as the 11th century.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=466fAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+civilisation|page=323|title=When We Ruled: The Ancient and Mediœval History of Black Civilisations|author=Robin Walker|publisher=Every Generation Media (Indiana University)|year=2006|isbn=978-0-9551068-0-4}}</ref>

The Yoruba are among the most urbanized people in Africa. For centuries before the arrival of the [[British colonial]] administration most Yoruba already lived in well structured urban centres organized around powerful city-states (''Ìlú'') centred around the residence of the [[Oba (king)]].<ref name=voices>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKIaBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|title=African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources|author1=Alice Bellagamba|author2=Sandra E. Greene|author3=[[Martin A. Klein]]|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-521-19470-9|pages=150, 151}}</ref> In ancient times, most of these cities were fortresses, with high walls and gates.<ref name="Falola 29–48">{{Citation|last=Falola|first=Toyin|editor2-first=Toyin|editor2-last=Falola|editor1-first=Ann|editor1-last=Genova|title=The Yorùbá Nation|work=Yorùbá Identity and Power Politics|year=2012|pages=29–48|publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/yoruba-identity-and-power-politics/yoruba-nation/C306461CC9ABF9D5754B6C3D1D10148B|isbn=978-1-58046-662-2}}</ref> Yoruba cities have always been among the most populous in Africa. Archaeological findings indicate that Òyó-Ilé or Katunga, capital of the Yoruba empire of Oyo (fl. between the 11th and 19th centuries CE), had a population of over 100,000 people.<ref name="Adeyemi 36–45" /> For a long time also, [[Ibadan]], one of the major Yoruba cities and founded in the 1800s, was the largest city in the whole of [[Sub-Saharan Africa|Sub Saharan Africa]]. Today, [[Lagos]] ({{Lang-yo|Èkó}}), another major Yoruba city, with a population of over twenty million, remains the largest on the African continent.<ref>{{cite thesis|url=https://archive.org/stream/aspectinyorubani00jnti/aspectinyorubani00jnti_djvu.txt|degree=PH.D|title=Aspect in Yoruba and Nigerian English |first=Timothy Temilola|last=Ajayi|publisher=University of Florida|year=2001|website=Internet Archive|access-date=8 July 2015}}</ref>

Archaeologically, the settlement of Ile-Ife showed features of urbanism in the 12th–14th century era.<ref name="Falola 29–48" /> In the period around 1300 CE the artists at Ile-Ife developed a refined and naturalistic [[sculptural]] tradition in [[terracotta]], stone and [[Copper-alloy|copper alloy]] – copper, brass, and bronze many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King [[Obalufon II]], the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia.<ref name="Blier Art and Risk">{{cite book|last=Blier|first=Suzanne Preston|title=Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c. 1300|date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02166-2}}</ref> The dynasty of kings at Ile-Ife, which is regarded by the Yoruba as the place of origin of human civilization, remains intact to this day. The urban phase of Ile-Ife before the rise of Oyo, c. 1100–1600, a significant peak of political centralization in the 12th century,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&q=yoruba+kingdom+oyo+encyclopedia+african+history&pg=PA672|title=Ife, Oyo, Yoruba, Ancient:Kingdom and Art|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of African History|author=Kevin Shillington|isbn=978-1-57958-245-6|page=672|publisher=Routledge|date=22 November 2004|access-date=1 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hegemony and culture: politics and religious change among the Yoruba|first=David D.|last=Laitin|page=111|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=1986|isbn=978-0-226-46790-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHbrDvGQEbUC&pg=PA111}}</ref> is commonly described as a "golden age" of Ile-Ife. The oba or ruler of Ile-Ife is referred to as the [[Ooni of Ife]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781536070/Ife_(kingdom).html |title=Encarta.msn.com |access-date=1 November 2009 |archive-date=1 November 2009 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5kx5Ant2O?url=http://au.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781536070/Ife_(kingdom).html }}</ref><ref name=civilisation>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xAyCAAAAMAAJ&q=Yoruba+civilisation|title=A Living Tradition: Studies on Yoruba Civilisation|author=L. J. Munoz|publisher=Bookcraft (the University of Michigan)|year=2003|isbn=978-978-2030-71-9}}</ref>

===Oyo, Ile-Ife and Lagos===
Ife continues to be seen as the "[[Holy city|spiritual homeland]]" of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo Empire<ref>{{cite book |title=Peoples of Africa, Volume 1| first1=Fiona |last1=MacDonald |first2=Elizabeth |last2=Paren |first3=Kevin |last3=Shillington |first4=Gillian |last4=Stacey |first5=Philip |last5=Steele |page=385 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7614-7158-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joh5yHfcF-8C&pg=PA385}}</ref> as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 11th century.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/437048/Oyo-empire Oyo Empire] at Britannica.com</ref>

[[File:The Ade-Are crown in Ile Ife.jpg|thumb|left|The Ade-Are crown in [[Ifẹ|Ile Ife]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://access.thebrightcontinent.org/items/show/26|title=Aare Crown Sculpture - Elevating the Office for a Time|website=Bright Continent}}</ref>|220x220px]]
The Oyo Empire under its oba, known as the [[Alaafin|Alaafin of Oyo]], was active in the [[African slave trade]] during the 18th century. The Yoruba often demanded slaves as a form of tribute of subject populations,<ref>{{Citation|last1=Domingues da Silva|first1=Daniel B.|title=Atlantic Slavery and the Slave Trade: History and Historiography|date=2018-11-20|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|last2=Misevich|first2=Philip|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.371}}</ref> who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thornton |first=John |year=1998 |title=Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=122, 304–311 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Alpern |first=Stanley B. |year=1998 |title=Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey |publisher=New York University Press |page=34}}</ref>

Most of the city states<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People">{{Citation|title=The Dispersal of the Yoruba People|work=The Development of Yoruba Candomble Communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835-1986|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137486431.0006|isbn=978-1-137-48643-1}}</ref> were controlled by [[Oba (ruler)|Obas]] (or royal sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils made up of [[Oba (ruler)#Aristocratic titles among the Yoruba|Oloye]], recognized leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them in ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingships and the chiefs' councils. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the [[Ijebu Kingdom|Ijebu]] city-states,<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People"/> the [[Congress|senatorial councils]] held more influence and the power of the ruler or ''Ọba'', referred to as the [[Awujale of Ijebuland]], was more limited.<ref name=civilisation/>

In more recent decades, [[Lagos]] has risen to be the most prominent city of the Yoruba people and Yoruba cultural and economic influence. Noteworthy among the developments of Lagos were uniquely styled [[Yoruba architecture|architecture]] introduced by returning Yoruba communities from Brazil and Cuba known as [[Brazilians in Nigeria|Amaros/Agudas]].<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Alonge|first=Marjorie Moji Dolapo|title=Afro-Brazilian architecture in Lagos State: a case for conservation|date=1994|publisher=Newcastle University|url=http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/883}}</ref>

Yoruba settlements are often described as primarily one or more of the main social groupings called "generations":<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cAoOAQAAMAAJ|title=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Volume 9, Issues 2–4)|author=Historical Society of Nigeria|publisher=The Society (Indiana University)|year=1978}}</ref>
* The "first generation" includes towns and cities<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People" /> known as original capitals of founding Yoruba kingdoms or states.
* The "second generation" consists of settlements created by conquest.<ref name="The Dispersal of the Yoruba People" />
* The "third generation" consists of villages and municipalities that emerged following the [[Yoruba Revolutionary Wars|internecine wars]] of the 19th century.